Another day, another scandal out of Liberty University.
The university just reached a settlement with 12 women who accused the prominent evangelical institution of mishandling cases of sexual assault and harassment in a class action lawsuit filed last summer. Their disturbing allegations spanned more than two decades.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Jack Larkin, filed a notice of dismissal last week, saying the case had been settled, although he didn’t provide any details.
Related: Apparently Jerry Falwell Jr.’s pool boy has a “cache of compromising photos” he’s willing to leak
In a statement to local media, he said, “The terms of the settlement are confidential in nature and there’s really nothing I can say about it beyond that the parties to the suit have resolved their differences, and the matter is settled.”
But the scrutiny over Liberty’s handling of sex assault cases doesn’t look like it’ll be letting up any time soon.
Numerous lawsuits have raised similar allegations and are still ongoing, and the U.S. Department of Education is currently investigating whether the school violated the federal Clery Act, which requires colleges and universities to maintain and disclose crime statistics and security information.
All this comes not long after the university’s former president and chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. gave a bombshell interview to Vanity Fair, in which he claimed he never lived by the values he purported to before resigning from the college back in August 2020 amid the whole pool boy sex scandal.
Related: Jerry Falwell Jr. opens up about pool boy scandal, says the whole evangelical thing was just an act
“Because of my last name, people think I’m a religious person,” Jerry told the magazine. “But I’m not. … There was so much pressure on me to become somebody I wasn’t. I’d wake up each day saying, ‘How am I going to do this?'”
“We had to put on an act,” his wife Becki added.
Liberty has been in the spotlight for its split with the Falwells since 2020. Litigation between the two parties is ongoing.
In March, Deadline reported that Falwell’s downfall would serve as the basis for a new limited series, which will be adapted from reporter Gabe Sherman’s Vanity Fair exposé that first broke the pool boy sex scandal. Sherman himself will pen the script.
“Gabe Sherman is setting out to tell the story of a great American family business, where the business is religion,” producer Michael London said in a statement.
“It’s an untold story with a larger-than-life cast of characters amassing vast power and fortunes. Yes, there’s a sex scandal, one that consumed the life of Jerry Jr. and his wife Becki, but what’s most surprising is the insight and empathy that Gabe brings to their very human struggle to be true to themselves.”
Related: Hello, pool boys! Our dream cast for the new Jerry Falwell Jr. sex scandal series
Cam
Translation: Liberty University protected rapists and paid extra money to put a gag order on the settlement so it wouldn’t leak.
Aaron
Period.
radiooutmike
Wow. Jerry Jr. and Becki have a very real struggle to be true to themselves?!
Oh, that sounds familiar. Those poor souls. Bless their hearts.
Den
You can be certain that Jerry and Becki has no such struggle to “be true to themselves.” More likely they had the hubris to think they could keep their act going on forever and that their total lack of ethics would remain a secret.
This is very likely widespread in the evangelical world where grift is more likely than grace!
Den
After all, none of these folks ever come clean, and their “conflicts” or “failings” only surface after evidence of their hypocrisy: quickly followed by statements of how they have “gotten right with Jesus” and are forgiven.
It is all bull.
RyanMBecker
Who’s gonna play pool boy Giancarlo in the miniseries?
Jim
When old white men are in charge we all suffer.
okiloki
So their defense is that they were faking being religious leaders in order to maintain their wealth, power, and lavish lifestyle? Liberty really is a cult. Even when there are repeated abuses and their leaders even admit to being frauds, many still unquestioningly support them.
johncp56
Same people that vote to tell women how to use their bodies, the Good!!? Christians LOL life jokes on us daily, shine that light on them